Today's maker movement reminded me in many ways why I am making this food inquiry focus during my time at the Summer Institute. My mother is an avid reader, an amazing writer and a phenomenal cook. She and Martha Stewart could be sisters. I kept asking myself, why am I so interested in this food piece with my teaching...and then it struck me! My mother always is buying cookbooks. She is like me with shoes, there is always one more that I need to have...always one more. My mother's favorite cookbooks are those that tell a story. Why is the recipe a favorite? What is the history behind the recipe? Who created it in the first place and why? All these questions are just the tip of the iceberg when examining food. The influence that food has on memory is immense.
Recipes are created for a variety of reasons. There is a strong connection between food and memory/association. I always associate memories of my mom reading a book to me and then we would recreate some feast from the book. For example, creating Turkish delights from The Chronicles of Narina is a fond childhood memory for me. I want to be able to incorporate different aspects of these memories with my students writing and connect it with different pieces of literature. Food and recipes are a simple step to recognizing the "maker" in each person. Granted that some makers are more delicious than others. But it is a definite step in recognizing the importance of a person as a maker.
At least one a semester I pose a focus question for my students of: "What would your last meal be if you were on death row?' Every semester we spend at least 15- 20 minutes discuss their selections and 9 times out of 10 they choose family dishes that their mom or grandmothers have made for them. This role of history is important to them. I want to take this connection and use it. Figuring out the best way to reach this is the key right now.
I have included a video of how to make pasta from scratch. This was something my mom and I attempted this past Christmas after reading a fabulous recipe in her cookbook The Golden Book of Pasta. This Italian chef's looks better than ours...but I am sure my memory is more "golden" than his and it was delicious.
I love this sentence from your post, Rebecca: "Food and recipes are a simple step to recognizing the 'maker' in each person." I am excited by the conversations you all are having in the food group because I feel like all of us, in some way or another, can start incorporating food into our curriculum.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Peter Elbow's article last night for homework, I was struck by a suggestion of his that as teachers, we sometimes ought to respond to our students' work based solely on "what" they are saying, not just "how" they are saying it. His reasoning for this is that it allows us to respond to writing as humans rather than teachers. Your post brought that quotation to mind because I think introducing food into the classroom can help achieve the same accomplishment - it acknowledges the 'maker' in us and thereby acknowledges what's human about us. And how powerful to remind ourselves that food is so inherently tied to our memories! I remember baking braided bread with my teacher in 5th grade so clearly; although it was a long time ago, it was a really meaningful experience for me and I still have that recipe in the front of my own cookbook today. Your inquiry is so important!!!
I am going to piggy-back on the last comment and Elbow's article. The part about responding soley on "what" they are saying, not just "how" fits in so well with food and the creation of recipes. If you are in a classroom of twenty-five students and you tell them to make tomato soup, you will get twenty-five different tomato soups. Are any of these wrong? Most likely not (unless you end up with the rebel who decides to make something completely different). The point is that they all made and did what was asked, but the way in which they created their project was different. So should one teacher grade a soup lower than another because they didn't like the taste?
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